News From the Census The broader facts to be obtained
from a Census are available in any case—as is sufficiently shown by the close, correspondence between the figures given in the Preliminary Report, published on Wednesday, and the estimate which the General Register Office was able to make from recordi normally available without any Census at all. What the Census can do is to set a seal on the facts, provide full material for deliberate inferences from them, and—undoubtedly the most interesting point for most practical purposes—make available a great mass of fascinating detail. It is important for everybody to learn that the population of England and Wales has risen from 39,952,377 in 1931 to 43,744,924 in 1951, but the casual observer who did not single out the fact that the population of Huyton-with-Roby rose by 973 per cent. in the same period, far exceeding the rate of increase of any other large town, would be less than human. Even in this Preliminary Report there is a great deal of such detail, though all the facts about occupations, age, distribution, size of families, housing and amenities are still to come. And certain of the large facts already exposed are of such immediate importance and interest as to overshadow even the most bizarre local details. The fact that England and Wales gained 745,000 people by immigration in the past twenty years, thus spectacularly revers- ing the outward trend of over a century, is pretty certain to stir up public discussion, and it may do some good if it quiets the fears of those miners who think a handful of Italian immigrants are going to destroy full employment. The fact that the drift to the towns has at last been reversed makes this census period a historical landmark. The fact that so far there is no sign of a decline in population was already beginning to sink in, despite the persistence of the gloomier prophets, but the deliberate emphasis which the Report puts on it may serve to direct public attention to the more immediate problem set by the growing proportion of older people in the total.
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